The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it has filed civil litigation against the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and its editor-in-chief Tzou Jiing-wen (鄒景雯), accusing the paper of publishing "entirely untrue" reports on exchanges between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The party is seeking NT$2 million (US$63,698) in damages and demanding that a clarification notice be published for one month on the front pages of the China Times, the United Daily News and the Liberty Times — Taiwan's three major dailies.
The Liberty Times published seven reports on Jan. 25, Jan. 26 and Sunday last week that were “fake news,” KMT spokesperson Chiang I-chen (江怡臻) told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
The reports made claims about a planned meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Chiang said.
They included headlines such as "Beijing dissatisfied that the KMT only takes exchange benefits" and "A meeting between Cheng and Xi planned for mid-March."
The KMT had previously sent two lawyer's letters over separate reports, which made "completely baseless" accusations, said Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), director of the KMT's Culture and Communications Committee.
One was about alleged "conditions" tied to arranging the meeting and another claimed that a KMT lawmaker attended a gathering of Taiwanese business people in China "to receive instructions from the other side," he said.
The civil complaint names the Liberty Times, Tzou and two reporters as defendants, he added.
KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that after Cheng took office as party chair in November last year, many foreign officials stationed in Taiwan asked him whether there were arms procurement conditions for arranging a meeting between her and Xi.
The reports had caused "negative evaluations" and damage to the KMT's reputation, particularly ahead of Taiwan's local elections in November, he said.
Neither he nor Wu had received any calls from the newspaper in relation to the reports, which was "very unusual," Hsiao said.
The newspaper's reports "all had basis" and underwent "reasonable verification," Liberty Times spokesperson Su Yu-hui (蘇宇暉) said.
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